Creator / Global Television Network

Global's Got It!

— Network advertising slogan throughout the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s

The Global Television Network, usually known for short as "Global", is Canada's second-oldest English-language private broadcaster, and third-oldest English-language television network (behind the CBC and CTV). It began broadcasting in 1974 with a TV station licensed to Paris, Ontario but primarily intended to serve Toronto, and with several rebroadcasters covering Southern Ontario^note (One of those "translators", the Toronto rebroadcaster on channel 41 atop CN Tower, was in all but practice the originating station of the network for decades, but Paris still served as the main station for the CRTC's purposes in licensing the Global system. In 2009 the CRTC finally acknowledged what everyone knew, and the oddly-named CIII-TV-41 was officially the main station in the network, though the Paris transmitter still exists.) Originally the network bore the call sign CKGN-TV, which changed in 1984 to CIII-TV, the "III" meaning "three" (as in the third English-language network). The station also added cable coverage through most of the rest of Ontario and beyond, becoming a regional superstation. Originally, the schedule was done to resemble American independent stations in the daytime in parts, but in prime time, it mainly simulcast American shows, and still does today.^note Due to border exclusivity rules, Global's original channel 22 signal in Cottam, Ontario, which served the Windsor area, was forbidden to air first-run prime-time U.S. shows due to its proximity to Detroit, and in fact stayed on air with only an ID slide during prime time until the transmitter was destroyed by a fire. Global eventually launched a new channel 22 signal to serve Windsor, located farther away from the U.S. border.

After an initial rough start (in the beginning, the network didn't even sign on until mid-afternoon, and was plagued by low ratings and financial woes in its early years), over time, Global grew the beard to become Canada's third (English) TV network. In addition to expanding its broadcast signal coverage into northern Ontario communities like Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay (where Global had previously been available only on cable), the network drew affiliates outside Ontario including in Winnipeg, Montreal, and Vancouver (it was known as the "Canwest Global System" for most of the 90s, until the Global branding was expanded across all the Global O&Os in 1997, when they reached Quebec).^note Global's affiliated station in Montreal, CKMI, is actually the former CBC English network affiliate in Quebec City, which was never profitable while it broadcast in that market and was eventually sold off and moved to Montreal. The network was long headquartered in Winnipeg until 2010 and owned by its parent company, CanWest (headed by Izzy Asper, a former leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party) up to that point, when it, along with all of CanWest's TV holdings, was sold to Shaw Communications, which then organized them into a new subsidiary, Shaw Media, and moved Global's master control from Winnipeg to Calgary (where Shaw's HQ is). By 2000, Global became a more nationwide network, with affiliates covering most of Canada save Newfoundland and Labrador, and CanWest acquiring roughly half of the assets of the Vancouver based Western International Communications (WIC), which included longstanding independent stations in Calgary (CICT-TV, originally the city's CBC affiliate) and Edmonton (CITV-TV, not to be confused with the British CITV kids' channel associated with ITV; incidentally, as a longtime cross-Canada superstation, it was branded as ITV) switching to Global (they'd been nominal independent stations but in practice had sourced most of their entertainment programming from Global), as well as longtime flagship station CHAN-TV in Vancouver, which served as most of British Columbia's CTV affiliate, long branded as "BCTV", forcing its then-affiliate, CKVU-TV, to be sold and become independent, and later an affiliate of Citytv.^note Though Global Edmonton is still available on some cable systems across Canada, including in all of Newfoundland and Labrador, even though many of the same programs are on independent station CJON-TV (branded as NTV), based in St. John's, which was a former CTV affiliate. Said deals turned into a series of transactions with every private station in Vancouver switching affiliations. CHAN also took over responsibility for Global's national news programming — having harbored dreams of producing their own national newscast during their CTV affiliation; after CTV turned them down, CHAN instead began producing Canada Tonight, featuring their lead anchor Tony Parsons, for their fellow WIC stations; when WIC was purchased by CanWest this meant that Canada Tonight replaced Global's in-house First National. CT was in turn replaced by the new Global National with Kevin Newman, which debuted in September 2001.

Global has been the longtime Canadian home of The Simpsons and Family Guy^note which moved to Citytv in Fall 2015. The Simpsons would follow suit in Fall 2018, having carried the Fox Sunday night lineup in pattern for several years, and has also hosted some of the best known shows from NBC's Must-See TV lineup, such as Friends, Frasier and Seinfeld. It is also the Canadian home for Survivor and Big Brother.

Some of Global's best known Canadian content includes The Best Years, which ran on Global in Canada from 2007 to 2009 and on The N in the U.S. Global was the original Canadian home of SCTV from 1976 to 1979 before it moved to CBC.

From 2001 to 2009, Global had a sister network, CH, named for its flagship station, longtime independent station CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario. Its charter affiliates were mostly stations acquired in the WIC deal that already existed in markets where Global had stations: CHCH, CHEK-TV (originally a CBC affiliate and later CTV affiliate serving Vancouver Island) in Victoria, British Columbia and CJNT-TV, an ethnic independent station in Montreal (currently a Citytv affiliate). It later added former CBC affiliates CHBC-TV in Kelowna, British Columbia and CHCA-TV (previously CKRD-TV) in Red Deer, Alberta, the latter being heavily Retooled to broaden its reach to Calgary and Edmonton. In 2007, it was rebranded as E!, using the name and logo of the more well known American cable channel under license from Comcast (the local newscasts would switch to using their call signs for branding). However, this began to be questioned by 2009, when, as a result of the economic meltdown, CanWest felt that it no longer needed a second TV network, and sold off the E! stations (some of them for as little as $1) in Hamilton, Victoria and Montreal, all of which became independent, with CHCH mainly focused on a "rolling news" format throughout the day and movies in prime time (However, the station's news division declared bankruptcy in 2015, and news programming was cut back. CHCH now airs reruns of classic TV series in the former news timeslots from 10am to 6pm). The Victoria station today now carries infomercials, locally produced shows, syndicated reruns and along with CHCH, CJON and a TV system in Ontario and Alberta called Yes TV (formerly known as the Crossroads Television System) is part of an ad sales venture called indieNET (which is the current Canadian home for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!). The station in Kelowna was retained and became a Global affiliate, and the station in Red Deer went silent on August 31, 2009. Over a month later, CBC affiliate CKX-TV in Brandon, Manitoba, owned by CTV, similarly went silent. (In 2010, CTV converted its cable channel Star into a new Canadian version of E!)

After CanWest filed for bankruptcy, it was effectively split in two: its publishing operations were sold to Postmedia (a new company led by National Post CEO Paul Godfrey), and its broadcast properties (including Global) were sold to the Shaw cable company, who has since pulled a Saving Throw and invested heavily in the stations (heck, from February 2009 to October 2011, the Toronto station didn't even have a morning show!), restoring local newscasts, adding new ones, and establishing a new news network for British Columbia. In April 2016, Global was sold again, when Shaw Media was sold to sister company Corus Entertainment^note The Shaw family own controlling shares in both Shaw Communications and Corus. Already an owner of various radio stations and cable TV networks, the purchase made Corus own about one-third of the entire Canadian television market!

Also noteworthy for Content Warnings preceding religious shows, which previously stated, "The opinions expressed in the following program are those of the participants, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Global Television Network". ^note In recent years, the Content Warnings for religious programming have taken on the form of "The following is a presentation of [religious production company]. The views expressed are solely those of the producers.")

Global TV original programming and coproductions

• The Adventures of Sinbad
• Andromeda
• Black Hole High
• Bob and Margaret
• Bumper Stumpers
• Combat Hospital
• Dog City
• Family Law (2021)
• Jackpot
• Mutant X
• Nurses (2020)
• The Outer Limits (1995)
• Producing Parker
• Psi Factor
• Queen of Swords
• Ready or Not (1993)
• The Red Green Show (season 4-6 as The New Red Green Show)
• Robyn Hood (2023)
• Rookie Blue
• SCTV (seasons 1-2)
• The Smoggies
• Super Dave (co-production with Showtime)

Notable Shows that aired on Global TV

• 24
  • 24: Live Another Day
• 60 Minutes
• A Current Affair
• America's Most Wanted
• American Dad! (The earlier seasons)
• Big Brother
  • Big Brother Canada (Season 3-onward)
• Bob's Burgers (Seasons 1-5)
• The New/$40,000 Chain Reaction
• Entertainment Tonight
  • Global produces the Canadian spin-off ET Canada as well
• Family Guy (Seasons 1-13)
• Futurama (Seasons 1-5 and the movies)
• Glee (Seasons 1-5; the latter half of Season 5 and the rest of the series moved to Citytv)
• Hawaii Five-0
• King of the Hill
• Malcolm in the Middle
• Maude (first run; the series had originally aired on, and would later be rerun on, CBC)
• Miami Vice
• My Three Sons
• NCIS
  • NCIS: Los Angeles
  • NCIS: New Orleans
  • NCIS: Hawaiʻi
  • NCIS: Sydney
• NUMB3RS
• The Office (US)
• Prison Break (The original series)
• Sailor Moon (the DiC dub of the '90s anime was broadcast on Global during the 1995-96 season, in addition to airing on YTV)
• The Simpsons (Seasons 1-29)
• Supergirl (Season 1; Moved to Showcase Television for Season 2-onward)
• Survivor

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